'Why we might be alone' Public Lecture by Prof David Kipping

Public Lecture from Nov 18th 2022 held at Columbia University.

[ankh]

I know why I’m still alone, I keep watching videos like this instead going out 😂

[Lord.Kiltridge]

"Oracle. Are we alone in the universe?" she asked.
"Yes, " said the Oracle.
"So there's no other life out there?"
"There is. They're alone too."

[tinetannies]

The truly sad thing is that whether we are alone or not, humanity as a whole doesn't revere our incredible gift of existence. We fight and we squander and we're petty, all while taking for granted how magnificent it is to be here.

[jasonfeulner]

Finally! Michael Crichton made similar points some years ago (it would take a fiction writer with a scientific mind to sniff out BS so keenly). The compounding of UNKNOWN variables still make them unknown. That popular scientific personalities talk about the Drake equation and other similar notions with such bias has seriously dumbed down the scientific dialogue in our society. We also talk about modeling in other areas in the same way, as if these equations are not speculative but somehow predictive. Kudos to Dr. Kipping for treating science like a process, not a corruptible worldview.

[N_Ides]

Videos like this make me grateful to be alive in the time of the internet.

[droidnick]

"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”
-Arthur C Clarke

[lincolnyaco]

Dr. Kipping is a bracing gust of cool logic.

🦉

[HonorGuard]

I really liked the way Professor Kip lectures/teaches. He has a genuine smile and its more like he's conversing with you about something so casual, except it's about the universe and scientific equations lol.

[JT]

“I don’t know” is often the only honest thing a wise man can say.

[frasercain]

The fact that intelligent life only formed shortly before Earth becomes uninhabitable is really interesting. I'd never thought of it that way.

[RonBaker]

WOW. A scientist who presents a rational cogent argument and still openly admits we really just don't know when it comes right down to it and we need more info. We could sure use a few more of this type of critical thinking scientist. Maybe even in the pharmaceutical industry.

[johanjohansson]

We can be alone in the observable universe but there can still be infinite amount of life in the universe as a whole.

[Mike-ivhy]

I find this person to be VERY logical in his thinking !
And I watch his channel all the time .
I do not ALWAYS agree with his deduction, but I do MOST of the time !
DML.

[rockiesecho]

A true scientist is supposed to think this way. Great Lecture!

[lukew]

Great lecture. Dr. Kipping is completely correct. I personally want there to be a Star Trek like universe out there just waiting for us to discover it, but what we've currently observed shows no evidence of that. You can get into as many thought experiments using statistics as you want, but at the end of the day we just don't know. Those thought experiments are important, don't get me wrong, but they prove nothing. This might not be very exciting, but this time we live in is very important. As Obi Wan said in Star Wars, we have "taken your first step into a larger world."
Keep learning everyone!

[jasonmoquin]

Brian Cox spoke at my local lecture hall last year. It was fantastically well presented and he broached this topic and discussed this television appearance. He no longer holds the position that life is common. In fact, after interacting with so many biologists over the years, it changed his thinking about how…as he put it….extremely lucky you seem to need to be to evolve to this level. He now thinks that life may not necessarily be super rare either, per se’, but remains single-celled or low level multi-cellular for the life of the planet.

[russhamilton]

We may be alone or we may be effectively alone. It is a distinction without a difference...

[trainyoumust]

Thank you for the work you are doing professor Kipping. I would have loved working in your team. Our world needs more minds like yours to profess reason and expand our knowledge. ❤

[aarondavis]

Biologists who study early life are probably the people you would want to include in this discussion. While even they don't _know_ how life first began, they know enough to at least give some interesting and illuminating context.

[dougieh]

Brian Cox actually changed course. Respect to Brian 💯